head to head · open source
compose vs dbos-transact-golang
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars, 5,899 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dbos-transact-golang has 863 stars, 80 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. compose leads on adoption by 4,370% (38,573 vs 863 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; dbos-transact-golang is written in Go under MIT. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, dbos-transact-golang 9%. compose was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (go, golang, orchestration), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| compose | dbos-transact-golang | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 863 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 80 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dbos-transact-golang if
- You want the dbos-transact-golang feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dbos-transact-golang fits your workflow better
About compose
Table of Contents Docker Compose Where to get Docker Compose + Windows and macOS + Linux Quick Start Contributing Legacy Docker Compose Docker Compose is a tool for running multi container applications on Docker defined using the Compose file format. A Compose file is used to define how one or more containers that make up your application are configured. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command: docker compose up . Note : About Docker Swarm Docker Swarm used to rely on the legacy compose file format but did not adopt the compose specification so is missing…
read the full compose overview →
About dbos-transact-golang
DBOS Transact: Lightweight Durable Workflow Orchestration with Postgres Documentation • Examples • Github What is DBOS? DBOS provides lightweight durable workflow orchestration on top of Postgres. Instead of managing your own workflow orchestrator or task queue system, you can use DBOS to add durable workflows and queues to your program in just a few lines of code. When Should I Use DBOS? You should consider using DBOS if your application needs to reliably handle failures . For example, you might be building a payments service that must reliably process transactions even if servers crash mid operation, or a long…
read the full dbos-transact-golang overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or dbos-transact-golang more popular?
compose has 38,573 GitHub stars and dbos-transact-golang has 863. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and dbos-transact-golang free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dbos-transact-golang under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and dbos-transact-golang?
compose is written in Go and dbos-transact-golang in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, compose or dbos-transact-golang?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,573 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dbos-transact-golang if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.